By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Photo credit: Brisbane International Facebook
Karolina Muchova showed timely touch up to wrap a win worth framing.
Running down her opponent’s dropper, Muchova dabbed a drop shot winner reply repelling Victoria Mboko 7-5, 7-6(5) to secure a spot in her maiden Miami Open semifinal.
The 13th-seeded Muchova will meet an American opponent, either fourth-seeded Coco Gauff or 12th-seeded Hailey Baptiste, for a spot in the final.
This match was a rematch of the Doha final six weeks ago.
In Doha, past title stumbles inspired Muchova to soar to the biggest title of her life.
The 14th-seeded Muchova won five of the final six games defusing red-hot Mboko 6-4, 7-6, to capture her first career WTA 1000 championship in Doha. This run to the Miami semifinals marks the first time Muchova has reached two WTA 1000 semifinals, or better, in the same season.
In today’s rematch, Muchova scored the lone break of the day for a 6-5 lead. Muchova converted her third set point to snatch a high-quality opening set.
Down set point at 4-5 in the second set, Muchova whipped the wide served then soared for a tricky smash winner to save set point and eventually level after 10 games.
Targeting the Canadian’s forehand winer, Muchova drew three forehand errors to take a 4-0 tiebreaker lead. Muchova hammered a forehand down the line for 5-2 and earned match points at 6-4.
On her second match point, Muchova read the Mboko drop shot, raced forward and bunted a short reply to close in one hour, 47 minutes.
Muchova improved to 18-3 on the season.